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More Gender Angst


Jeff Matthews

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6 minutes ago, K5SS said:

I can take that link down, if you guys think it would cause this thread to get locked.

 

I am the type where I think we are all more alike than we are all different so I tend to look at the world through rose colored glasses at times, cause I like the view.

 

These are the types of provocative  conversations that can help speed up positive changes and I would hate it if this thread were shutdown, because of a stupid video.

 

If you have some extra time, and you need a good laugh, google “it’s ma’am meme”...

Oh, this thread is going to get locked.  No question.  Maybe this will help, I Love Klipsch!!!

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1 minute ago, ACV92 said:

BTW, what happened to the 'little people' movement?  Still don't see too many provisions being made for them.  Again, true philanthropic people are unusually dynamic.  They don't just pick this or that.

Umm...I'm not sure where you are going with the philanthropic observation but "little people" don't have the same discriminatory problems that transgender folks do. 

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6 minutes ago, Zen Traveler said:

Umm...I'm not sure where you are going with the philanthropic observation but "little people" don't have the same discriminatory problems that transgender folks do. 

Not to go off topic but, do not know about the discrimination there. The philanthropy observation may be well wishers or more than. Will let OP speak to that of course.

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20 minutes ago, Zen Traveler said:

Umm...I'm not sure where you are going with the philanthropic observation but "little people" don't have the same discriminatory problems that transgender folks do. 

Are you kidding me????  Nothing in this world is built to their height, stature.  What more can a society say than we don't care that your not of average height, we're going to keep building things for us 'normal' folk.  People gawk and stare, wonder what it's like.  WTH do you think a little man at 3'4" does when he walks up to a urinal and he's staring at the bowl part level with his eyes?  Transgender people only get discriminatory behavior because it's topical.  Believe me, if the media started focusing on little people again it would be a huge 'today' issue.  It's about the headlines.  Too many people are just sheep, have no ability to discern.  It's frustrating.   

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10 minutes ago, ACV92 said:

OK, going to have to drop out of this one.  I don't want to appear to be insensitive, or to having a lack of understanding, I'm not that person.  My apologies if I've offended anyone.  Thanks.

Liking your input quite some bit there man .Know your around just the forum so big. Cool...

Valid views to take note of...

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8 hours ago, habinger808 said:

actually i know a transgender individual back growing up in hawaii. its not uncommon to meet and know what we call "mahu" or gay man. i know this one "guy" since we were little kids and he always liked girly things and was very feminine. he would get picked on all the time and our group of friends would always back him up and even beat the crap out of several guys that would pick on him throughout highschool. he was definitely one of the tiny percent that should and did get sex reassignment surgery. 

the best part of this entire story is that years later in our mid 20s, i met a large group of former highschool classmates and several of the guys that used to pick on my friend pulled me on the side and asked "whos the hottie?" my friend was much more beautiful than she was ever handsome. shes very happy and is in a happy relationship. her boyfriend is happy and knows her history. 

they dont advertise it and they stick to themselves which is fine. she will always be the kid i grew up with that just needed a friend. 

now granted this is a very rare case and story. since then, i met alot of "transgender" individuals that just seem confused and emotional wrecks. i stay away from those types. by the way, my friend never tried to push anything on anyone as is with todays society. 

 

harbinger808, it sounds like you and your group were real friends to somebody who really needed friends.  You have my respect for that.

 

I also know a transgender person.  I've known Michelle since the Seventies, when she was Mike, the owner of Mike's Bikes, and a former member of Yamaha's factory racing team.  Mike was probably the fastest racer out of Canada before Miguel Duhamel, and his father, Yvon Duhamel.  He won several World Championship races, and was ranked as high as #2 in the world, before he had a serious crash that nearly ended his career.  I knew Mike as a good guy, well-respected in the Canadian motorcycle industry and in racing circles even more respected.  He was also one of the best motorcycle machinists in the Toronto area, so I trusted him when I needed some precision work done.

 

One day in the mid-Seventies, I was at Yamaha Motor Canada, picking up parts for the shop where I worked, when Mike stopped in to also pick up parts.  I noticed that he had a ponytail and an earring, so I thought to myself, "Mike's going hippie in his old age."  He was ten years older than me.  A day or two later, I read in Cycle News that Mike was now Michelle.  Whoa!  Once people got used to the idea, their attitudes towards Michelle didn't change much.  As I said at the time, "Mike was a manly man, and now she's a womanly woman."  Unlike habinger808's friend, though, Mike went from being a good-looking dude to being an average looking and slightly masculine-appearing woman, with big mechanic's hands.  When a CBC interviewer mentioned that exact thing, Michelle replied that feeling right in her body was more important than any cosmetic or vanity issues, and that she was happier now.

 

The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) did a 30-minute documentary about Michelle and her transition, and I don't mind admitting that hearing her describe what's involved in the changeover surgery made me pretty uncomfortable, so seeing the documentary once was enough for me.  However, life went on, and Michelle, along with other retired Grand Prix stars, sometimes appeared at GP races in Europe to join them in parade laps before the big race would start, kind of like presenting the NHL old-timers before a hockey game.

 

She closed the bike shop, and dropped out of sight for a while, then she showed up in the early Nineties at the Sportbike Rally, a popular ride-in event at Parry Sound, Ontario, a couple of hours north of Toronto.  Around 400 bikes and their riders, and some passengers, arrive from all over Eastern Canada and the Northeastern US.  The rally area is surrounded by twisty secondary roads, and lots of fast riding happens, while the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) tend to stick to the main highway, where most of the vacationer traffic drives and crashes.

 

At one point, when a group of us were heading out for a ride, I spotted Michelle on her FZR600 and asked If I could ride with her, which would have been really cool, like going for a skate with Bobby Hull.  However, she refused, because in the past, people had crashed while trying to keep up with her, and she wasn't kidding.  I guess that goes to show that the balls can be in the helmet instead of in the pants, because losing hers didn't slow her down.

 

Anyway, Michelle has retired to a cottage in the Maritimes, north of Maine, and still has friends and fans all around the world.

 

I should mention that things don't go nearly so well for all transgender people.  A customer of the shop where I used to work (who had a really cool race replica bike) went from being Dennis to being Denise, and married a guy, then moved up near Ottawa.  According to newspaper reports, they faced a lot of harassment from the rednecks in the rural area where they lived, and her husband was severely beaten on at least one occasion, apparently because some people didn't like the idea of "people like that" living in their area.

 

If you're wondering about Mike Duff's big crash, here's a 10-minute documentary that shows the surgeon trying different-sized stainless steel cups over the end of his femur, in order to get his hip joint back into operation.  It's from 1965, and does look and sound a bit dated, but it is in colour, and it's not silent.  Back then, leather racing suits were just made of leather, with no padding, armour, knee sliders, or airbags.  The helmets were open-face, and races were nearly all push-start, which could be a real challenge with high-compression 500 Singles.  Riders didn't have huge motorhomes, just a little trailer pulled behind their race van.  The factory mechanics didn't arrive with a couple of tractor-trailers full of tools, spare parts, and a pair of million-dollar bikes.  They arrived in the company van and set up on the grass of the pit area.

 

Ride For Your Life:  

 

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13 hours ago, Zen Traveler said:

Does anyone here know a transgender person? 

 

Yes, I do. 

 

As to the sports issue, have any studies shown that women who used to be men are statistically significantly stronger than lifelong women who are similarly athletically trained?  Are lifelong women who happen to be extraordinary strong banned from any contact sport?

 

The person I know is in my daughter's circle of friends.  I don't know her too well.   Briefly, this person was a man, and a father, and  gradually made the transition and at first came out as non-binary, then later asked to be thought of as a trans woman.  She seems to be a fine person, is in a Ph.D. program, was the "Best Person" at a recent wedding.  She still lives with her wife -- I  don't think they are divorced, but I'm not sure.  She loves her young child, who was born before the change.  She is accepted by friends and acquaintances who are single, married, gay, straight, young, old, Christian, Jewish, agnostic, highly educated, moderately educated, etc.  The trans issue doesn't much concern millennials; it will fade into history sooner or later.

 

 

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3 hours ago, garyrc said:

As to the sports issue, have any studies shown that women who used to be men are statistically significantly stronger than lifelong women who are similarly athletically trained?  

That's pretty much why they seperate men's and women's sports.

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I really find it strange how many people are willing to turn a blind eye towards the physical differences between men and women. 

 

Back to the sports, off-topic, topic:)

 

I thought this was interesting:

 

“A great deal of controversy was created recently when former tennis pro John McEnroe claimed that multiple major winner Serena Williams would not be among the world's top 700 if she played on the men's circuit.”

No. 203 sweeps Williams

At the height of the Williams boom in 1998, an unofficial game took place in Australia after Serena and Venus claimed that no male player outside the top 200 could beat them.

Up stepped a German known as Karsten Braasch who was ranked 203rd in the world and after first beating Serena 6-1, he then disposed of Venus 6-2.

"I didn't know it would be that difficult. I played shots that would have been winners on the women's circuit and he got to them very easily," said Serena.

https://www.marca.com/en/more-sports/2017/06/27/595296da468aeb99218b464c.html

 

I am by no means a woman basher or anything. My mother is one of the hardest working, strongest people I know. I am also not willing to ignore evolution and science. 

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36 minutes ago, K5SS said:

I really find it strange how many people are willing to turn a blind eye towards the physical differences between men and women. 

 

Back to the sports, off-topic, topic:)

 

I thought this was interesting:

 

“A great deal of controversy was created recently when former tennis pro John McEnroe claimed that multiple major winner Serena Williams would not be among the world's top 700 if she played on the men's circuit.”

No. 203 sweeps Williams

At the height of the Williams boom in 1998, an unofficial game took place in Australia after Serena and Venus claimed that no male player outside the top 200 could beat them.

Up stepped a German known as Karsten Braasch who was ranked 203rd in the world and after first beating Serena 6-1, he then disposed of Venus 6-2.

"I didn't know it would be that difficult. I played shots that would have been winners on the women's circuit and he got to them very easily," said Serena.

https://www.marca.com/en/more-sports/2017/06/27/595296da468aeb99218b464c.html

 

I am by no means a woman basher or anything. My mother is one of the hardest working, strongest people I know. I am also not willing to ignore evolution and science. 

That very topic was discussed in the first video for those that chose to watch it.

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Supposedly a man has 50% more upper body strength than a woman on average and I would think the lower body strength has an advantage too.

 

 No one is complaining here about anyone being a trans, only the outlying few that take advantage of a woman's gendered competition where there is an overwhelming, obvious advantage.   The biggest note being that these few cant see the advantage and think it is now their right to compete in said competition even though they are obviously still their born gender.  If the previous pictures in this thread don't tell the story, then you likely wont ever get it.

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